Air Doll (2009)
Asmik Ace Entertainment | Release Date: February 4, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The Film StageMitchell Beaupre
Kore-eda’s preoccupations with death are on firm display here yet again, and over time Nozomi sees that even if there is a painful impermanence when it comes to living, we all leave something of us behind after we go. Read full review
80
Film ThreatStaff (Not Credited)
Air Doll is beautifully shot and performed. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
For 75 minutes or so, Air Doll is the lightest of Kore-eda’s movies, which include the superb “Nobody Knows’’ (2004) and “Still Life’’ (2008). Gradually, though, the tender music-box score — by one-man Japanese band world’s end girlfriend — is tinged with foreboding. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad Derakhshani
Air Doll covers some of the same ground as that other postmodern Pinocchio story, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, while avoiding its facile sentimentality. Read full review
75
TheWrapDave White
Thanks to Kore-eda’s characteristic practice of thoughtful scripting and gentle direction, the metaphors, though too numerous, land gently and effectively. Read full review
70
NPRMark Jenkins
Overly long and occasionally clumsy, Air Doll can't be counted among Kore-eda's best. But much of it is lovely and expressive, and it's one of those films that can haunt viewers long after they've left the theater. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea Gronvall
The incandescent Doona Bae (The Host, Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) gives a daring performance as the toy-turned-woman, Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'Angelo
The film is a little too cute and scattershot to achieve real profundity, with the doll-woman too often coming across like a playfully erotic version of Being There’s Chance the Gardener, defined entirely by her absence of guile. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesRobert Abele
It’s remarkable how Bae’s commitment to the physical mechanics of a trickily metaphoric role in no way interferes with the heart she needs to show, and vice versa. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleWalter Addiego
The idea is intriguing - an inflatable sex doll comes alive and experiences the world with wide-eyed innocence - but Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Air Doll" is only partly successful. The film's poignant depiction of human loneliness is undercut by saccharine notes and a drifting tone. Read full review
40
VarietyDerek Elley
Japanese helmer Hirokazu Kore-eda’s ongoing interest in love, loss and souls in limbo is stretched way too thin in Air Doll, a beautifully lensed (by Taiwanese ace Mark Lee) and charmingly played (by South Korean icon Bae Du-na) modern fairy tale about an inflatable doll who takes on a life of her own. Recut to a trim 90 minutes, this fragile yarn would work perfectly and have a chance of an afterlife as a specialty item. In its present form, pic may not get much farther than the fest netherworld. Read full review
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